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Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Silent Mornings Can Make Us Appreciate the Silent Night- Purity 608


 Silent Mornings Can Make Us Appreciate the Silent Night- Purity 608

Purity 608 12/22/2021  Purity 608 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a blue sky and blazing sun over a glistening ice frosted forest comes to us from a friend who was gracious enough to share this view that they captured while they were presumably hiking on Hogsback Mountain near Marlboro Vermont on Monday.  To be honest the pickings of cool views from my friends has been scarce lately and I was thrilled to see my friend’s beautiful photo. So if you should be out and about and see something worthwhile, take a quick pic and share it, for your friends would love to see it.   

Today is the hump day before Christmas and all through the house not a creature is stirring because I get up before the crack of dawn to connect with my heavenly Father through prayer and meditation to thank Him for the life that He has given me and to remind myself of just how amazingly blessed I have been to discover who I am in Christ.  

Over the last few days, I had been slacking in my quiet time with the Lord as I felt the urge to prepare for a discipleship counseling session I had on Monday evening and decided to unpack quite the personal testimony yesterday to commemorate the birth and life of my beloved son, Brennan.

When you walk in the spirit on a continuous basis, sometimes you feel led to abandon your regular routine to attend to other matters. In my experience, following these leadings has always led to me being prepared for the Lord’s service or gives Him glory in some way.  If you are going to follow the “Mighty Rushing Wind” of the Holy Spirit, you will discover that there can be quite a bit of spontaneity in your life as you answer His call to be used by God to grow and encourage and serve others.   

However, after the wind blows you all about, you will feel the joy that comes from your daily spiritual practice when it isn’t circumvented by other matters that the Spirit draws you to.  In the aftermath of serving and taking care of things that pop up, you can find rest and comfort in just another “normal” day in the Lord’s quiet still presence where your reflection on things past, present, and future just gives you peace.    

In one of my discipleship relationships, a brother in Christ always asks me about my “quiet time with the Lord” and sometimes the question really convicts and annoys me because I realize that I have neglected the study of God’s word or have been short in my times of prayer and meditation.   He asks the question because he knows it is important to spend time connecting with the Lord personally and just how easy it is to neglect it. 

When I am questioned and feel I have been lacking in seeking the quiet time of the Lord, I will get annoyed and start to think of a response in which I will defend myself by saying something like : “I’ve got important things to do!” or “You don’t know all I’m doing for the Lord already!” or even worse will have a temptation to point the question back at my friend as an accusation:  “What about you?  What are you doing for the kingdom?”  

When those responses come up in my head, I know that I have strayed from what I should be doing and realize that my pride has been activated.  When your pride rises up, you should stop and remind yourself of John 15:4-5, where Jesus tells his disciples:

John 15:4-5 (NKJV)
4  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5  I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

So as we are on a collision course with that Silent Night of Christmas Eve, in just two days, and maybe scrambling to make everything “just right”, try to stop and take some time to connect with the Lord through reading His word, by just taking a few moments to rest and reflect on Him in prayer, or by having an impromptu conversation with God. 

Walking in the Spirit is just a matter of living in God’s presence from moment to moment where we take our lives and put them in His hands and listen for His wisdom to guide us in the way we should go.  

Once you establish a habit of “walking and talking with God”, you will realize that you have entered into a spiritual dimension of life that few of those who surround you are experiencing.  You will come to see the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, and peace grow in your life and you will realize that without Him we can do nothing.  

So draw close to God, abide in His presence, and share the love that God pours into you with the people that He has brought into your life.  The Christmas Spirit isn’t about running around like a mad man being obnoxious and boastful about the magnificent decorations that you have put on display to scream Merry Christmas, it is about reminding others of the reason for the season that began when God came to earth in the flesh and the heavens were invaded by angelic heavenly hosts on a silent night to proclaim the peace that only comes through Jesus Christ.        


Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT2)
5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Today’s verses should be memorized and held in your heart because you will be able to stand on these verses every day a

I am more familiar with the NKJV version of these verses that says:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

I mean, this is our prescription. In all our ways we are to acknowledge Him by saying in effect that His ways are better than our ways and that we not only recognize that intellectually, but we also truly acknowledge it by trying to conform to His ways of thinking and by changing our behaviors to align with His word, experientially.  

The Christian life is to be lived out every day. The benefits of our faith are not just for eternity. They are for here and now. Our lives are transformed when we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our worldly understanding and instead endeavor to allow Him to direct our paths.   

Our walk, our relationship, with God is supposed to be interactive.  We acknowledge His ways and examine our ways and try to adjust our thoughts and behaviors to be more like His.   Because this is a spiritual relationship, it is not just about following a list of rules it is about thinking about our experience and communicating with God to receive His feedback and blessings that flow as a consequence of stepping onto His path for living.  

So keep walking and talking with God. Memorize these verses and use them to remind you who God is, who you are, and which way you are going in this life.  His ways are higher than our ways and when we walk with Him we invariably rise up out of the darkness and confusion of this world and find a life where we can say with assurance: it is well with my soul.

 

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Tozer’s Advent Devotional – From Heaven,  for Day 26 as this current resource series will lead us to Christmas Eve.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Tozer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.

DAY 26

LIFE AND LIGHT TO ALL HE BRINGS

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

JOHN 8:12

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 JOHN 1:5

Here is the wonder of the nature of God: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. This is the wonder of life and light: the Scriptures mix up and do not try to keep separated light and life. “Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings.” When that was written, theology was written, for life and light are one. This means that eternal life is also the light, the light of every man that cometh into the world. And I suppose that there is something deeper than morals here.

A great German theologian a generation ago wrote a book that has become very famous in learned circles. And in that book he declares that the idea of holiness goes back to personality. That you think of the holiness of God as a strange thing before you think of the person of God. I think he is right. I am quite sure he is right, and he says that the idea of purity is not the first idea of holiness. The first idea that comes to the mind, or that came to the mind, when the word holy was suggested was not the thought of being pure, but the idea of being greater than, higher than, other than, beyond, different from—in its self-sufficiency, uncreated substance of life. It is that without a pronoun, that without a personal pronoun, that—and then we attribute purity and holiness to God.

So when God says, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1: 16 NIV), He’s talking about moral purity, He’s talking about spiritual cleanness. But beyond that, in the back of that, and prior to that is the solemn, indescribable something that cannot be put into words: that there exists a nature, a substance in the universe that is life and light, and it is a thing, and it is that. But it also has personality and, that personality is God. And the wonder of this passage in John is the nature of God. God is light. God is life. And in Him is no darkness at all.

Tozer, A. W. (2016). From heaven: a 28-day advent devotional. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

For Unto You a Child is Born – The Boy Who Lived - Purity 607


For Unto You a Child is Born – The Boy Who Lived - Purity 607

Purity 607 12/21/2021  Purity 607 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a quaint New England lighthouse on the shores of Cape Cod comes to us from yours truly and the distant past as I captured this scene while on a whale watch cruise during a family vacation in the Summer of ’09, maybe or sometime in the 2000’s. I wasn’t the most diligent in labeling my photos in years past and the technology I used didn’t timestamp it, but I do believe this comes from a trip that was B.C. before Christ.      

Speaking of another B.C., if you happen to see my son today, Brennan Clark, be sure to wish him a happy birthday as he began his epic journey of life in this world 20 years ago today. Brennan’s coming was dramatic and his life has been filled with drama in various ways ever since. 











Brennan is a twin and my eldest born son as he and his brother, Holden, were born two months premature with Brennan being the first baby born and the only son I held on the day of his birth as the team of doctor’s and nurses whisked both babies away from us after Holden was delivered, something I interpret as somewhat prophetic in the wake of Holden’s death to pneumonia in March of 2022.  

We didn’t know Holden’s days were numbered at the time and by all appearances he was the healthier of the two twins, weighing about 8 pounds to Brennan’s 5.  Holden was allowed to come with us shortly after his birth, but Brennan had to stay in Albany Med’s NICU for a time before it was deemed safe for him to come home.

When Brennan was allowed to come home, he came home with a heart monitor which would beep loudly whenever Brennan’s little heart would skip a beat, causing his parents to run in a panic to his crib. We nicknamed Brennan “beeper” because of it but we had the utmost confidence that he would live.  

We had confidence both of our boys would live and when they both had colds in March 2022, we rushed them to the doctor on a Saturday to get them checked out.  The doctor assured us that the boys were over their colds and that they would be fine.  Two days later I received the traumatic shock of my life as I woke up with Holden dead in my arms as I had fallen asleep with him in the recliner in our living room.  



I thought I had inadvertently killed Holden in his sleep somehow, but the coroner’s report explained that Holden’s cold had turned into pneumonia and that was the cause of death.  Although I have the utmost assurance that Holden is alive in heaven with God, he is my son who died.

But Brennan, the smaller of the two twins, who was delayed in coming home with great concern and a heart monitor, got over his cold and lived. 

And boy has he lived. A few days ago I wrote about something being the gift that keeps on giving and that is how I feel about my son, Brennan, sometimes.



Both my son, Brennan, and daughter, Haley, are artists. Haley draws, paints, and writes stories and actually was the first of my children to bravely enter into the performing arts but Brennan followed in her footsteps and wasn’t content to stay in her or in anyone else’s shadow.  

Brennan was always an intelligent boy and excelled academically from the start but his penchant for questioning tradition, the status quo, and authority that he may have inherited from his father would also cause him to get in trouble as his passion would occasionally cause him to rebel or lash out in unpredictable ways or cause him to literally escape the school grounds.      



Thankfully, his passions eventually found a more acceptable way of expression in the performing arts as he became a soloist in the school choirs and one of the lead performers in the school dramatic performances. 

I took great pride in Brennan’s musical and dramatic performances and because I knew what a gift from God that he was, this was the boy that lived after all, I would go to all of his performances. But unlike some parents that aren’t shy to point out their relationship to their child star, I was content to stand in the shadows and not take any of his glory for myself.  I figured that Brennan is a gift from God that was not just for me but for everyone that his life will touch. 

That once small life that the experts doubted was meant to survive and to thrive. My son, the boy who lived, was meant to survive because of God’s sovereign will and the joy that he brings to people who see him perform and who befriend him. The talents that God gave Brennan point to the joy of living and the God who gave him life even if he isn’t always confident in his direction or sure of his course.



Brennan was slated to be the lead for his school’s spring musical in 2020, Little Shop of Horrors, before Covid-19 and horror of forced lockdowns cancelled his performance and his senior year in effect.   

Brennan stagnated in the wake of Covid-19, graduated in summer school, and spent a “gap year” in my home neither working nor going to school.   In that gap year, I gave many a pep talk and words of encouragement which seemed to fall on deaf ears as Brennan continued to stay home.   In that gap year, many people gave lots of advice on what I should do to straighten Brennan out, but I remained patient and encouraging, hoping that he would once again enter into the world to share his talents and himself with those who could use him.

He was my son and unlike like his father he wasn’t involved in alcohol or drugs and as far as I was concerned he could take his time in finding his way, although I admittedly was tested in my patience.   

Thankfully, the boy who lived decided to live again and this past fall he became a full time student at Hudson Valley Community College and recently had the male lead in the college’s production of Little Women, playing a character who didn’t ascribe to the status quo and was willing to think outside of the box, and to use his talents and resources for others, and to do anything for love.  

Not surprisingly, Brennan has new friends and a new attitude.  He is not sitting around the house anymore and although He may not be sure of his ultimate purpose he is giving himself to the world again.  

So today he will be going to Koto for his traditional hibachi birthday dinner but because of the difficulties in the post-divorce landscapes of our lives I won’t be in attendance. Brennan will be enjoying his 20th birthday dinner without either of his parents.   

Last night he said he knew I would understand why and said that “I didn’t care”.  I assured him that it was fine and that it was only natural for a man in his 20’s to gravitate towards his friends and wish to avoid any familial drama. 

I’m a grown up and don’t need to go to the birthday party but my absence shouldn’t be seen as a lack of care.  

While I don’t need to be at the party, my son, and daughter, should know that I love them dearly and only wish the best for them. I have tried to raise my children to be independent and I want them to find their way in the world.  Their lives are their own and I am immensely proud of each of them.  I understand that my children are a gift from God that I am to steward and then release into the world for His purposes and for His glory.  So I am content to stand in the shadows and love them from a distance, to be proud of them, and to take no portion of their praise or glory.

I can only hope that they know that as much as I love them, their heavenly Father, God, loves them too.  God loves them much more than me and He sent His Son to earth to prove it.

Father God stands in the shadows of our lives. He provides for us and pours the talents and abilities we have into us.  No matter what mistakes we make or how we perform He loves us.  And when we listen to His advice, follow Christ’s example, and walk into the good works that God has prepared for us, He is immensely proud of our accomplishments and basks in the glory of what we do that reflect His likeness.   

As I am reminded of and celebrate my son’s birth today, I would encourage everyone to get to know that Son who was born in Bethlehem whose purpose was to reflect His Father’s image and to use His talents and love to bring us to Him.   

The Father stands in the shadows loving you and He sent His son to give Him glory and to bring you home.  So go home for Christmas. Take the Son’s hand by making Him your Lord and Savior and take the eternal life and peace with God that comes from accepting His love.


Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verses are:

Proverbs 2:10-11 (NLT2)
10  For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11  Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.

Today’s verses conclude our short walk into Proverbs 2 and speaks of the experiential aspect of wisdom and the protection that comes through living it out. 

Today’s verses speak of an emotional aspect of wisdom. It’s not just good thoughts that enter our brains when we interact with God’s wisdom.  The term wisdom means applied knowledge.  It is one thing to know facts, it is another to use those facts in how you live your life.  

While we can’t assume that any knowledge is universal, most of us would admit that somethings, like smoking or eating non-nutritious foods, are unhealthy or not good for us.   While it is great to know that these habits can cause us to suffer, the knowledge doesn’t help us unless we apply it to our lives and decide to abstain from them.  

Spiritually, we can also “know” certain things but unless we apply our spiritual knowledge we could be led astray. When we let others make choices for us, we have to be careful and are responsible for the consequences of those decisions.  

Recently, that boy who lived, my son, Brennan went shopping with his girlfriend to purchase Christmas gifts for their small group of friends. Brennan took a back seat and relied on his girlfriend’s suggestions for their various friends’ gifts.  

 

One in their circle of friends apparently has macabre tastes and an interest in the occult. So Brennan’s girlfriend decided that their friend might enjoy a small giftset on witchcraft.  The box advertised that it contained a guide to magic, spells, and potions and promised that its spells would help to “de-stress”, to make your wishes to come true, and to give you a new adventure for your life.   

 

Brennan doesn’t believe in witchcraft and didn’t think much of it. So when I came home this weekend I found this witchcraft gift set sitting on my kitchen table!

 

I teach spiritual warfare. I know that witchcraft is prohibited in the Bible and is essentially the worship of demons and has great potential for harm.  So filled with righteous indignation and a desire to cleanse my house of this demonic gift, I took it and immediately constructed a bonfire to destroy it.  While I was at it, I also threw in a few books I had purchased that highlighted aberrant religious practices that I had re-purchased under the guise of research but when the spirit to cleanse house came they simply had to go to. 

 

So the house is spiritually cleansed for Christmas, Brennan has professed his non-involvement with the occult and fully understands that my home is a Christian home and hopefully will understand that the occult is not to be trifled with.  

 

So sometimes you have to apply your knowledge, in dramatic experiential ways.  I knew witchcraft was no good and followed the Bible’s teachings on what to do with occult books: we are to burn them.  

 

Knowing that material is out of my house, has been destroyed, and can’t harm anyone else fills my heart with joy. 

 

As today’s verses testifies:  Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.”  So know the word of God, stand on what it says, reap the joy of understanding it, and enjoy the safety that your wise choices that are based on the word of God brings.  

 

 

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. 

 

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Tozer’s Advent Devotional – From Heaven,  for Day 25 as this current resource series will lead us to Christmas Eve.

 

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Tozer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.

DAY 25

THE WONDERS OF GOD DECLARED

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

JOHN 1:18

Now the mystery of atonement had to be performed. Why in the Old Testament did the priest go behind the veil to perform the ritual of atonement and then come out from behind the veil? It was God saying, in beautiful symbolism, that there would be a day when another priest, with other blood, should enter into a realm where the mind of man could never penetrate, and there in a mystery too deep and dark and wonderful for man to understand, all alone with none to help him. Not David, not Abraham, not Paul—no one. Alone in the silence and the darkness he should make atonement for sin.

And that is what happened. God stepped back and allowed Him to die. But briefly and quickly, His heart was joined again to the love of God, for three days later He was raised from the dead and later ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And one day He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Now consider the closing line: “has made him known.” What has Jesus declared about God? There are profundities that He could never declare, there are depths that He could never declare. But there are some things He could declare and did and does. He could declare God’s holy being and, above all, for us poor sinners, He declared God’s love and mercy. So He has set Him forth, and Jesus Christ tells us in His tender, human being, that God has a care for us.

I remember hearing years ago of four or five sons who had been reared in a home, and the old folks were wordless. They did not say much; they did not show much affection. Nobody did. And the boys didn’t. After they were babies, they quit kissing their parents and quit using words of affection and grew to be strong men, and married and separated and got away. They seldom came home and seldom wrote. And when Mother’s time had about come, they sent for the boys. They said if they wanted to see her, come. They came, all of them—big, fine fellows now, each with his own home and his own business and job. As they stood around her bed, one of them said, “Mother, we want you to know that you’ve meant a lot to us boys. We haven’t been unappreciative. We’ve loved you, and we thank you.”

And then they separated and when they were gone from her, she turned and said to someone by her side, “Oh, if they had only told me before. These years I’ve wondered if I had meant anything to them. These years I thought I had failed them. Now they tell me, ‘We’re so thankful.’ If they had only told me earlier.”

You know it is possible to feel a lot that you don’t tell. It is possible to have fine intentions that you never make known. And how easy it might have been for God to have loved us and never told us, to have been merciful toward us and never revealed it. But the Scripture says that nobody ever saw God but the only begotten Son. Some translations say, “the only begotten God,” who is “in the bosom of the Father.” He has told us. He came to tell us what the silence never told us. He came to tell us what Moses could not even tell us. He came to tell us that God cares and God loves and God has a plan and God’s carrying out that plan. And before it all is finished there will be a multitude—redeemed, out of every tongue and tribe and nation—that no man can number. That’s what He told us.

He revealed God’s being, love, grace, mercy, good intention, redemptive intention, saving intention. He gave it to us. Here it is. It is ours! Now we have only to turn and believe and accept and take and follow, and it all is ours.

Tozer, A. W. (2016). From heaven: a 28-day advent devotional. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

 

Join our “Victory over the Darkness” or “The Bondage Breaker” series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

 

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

Monday, December 20, 2021

Making Memories - Purity 606


 
Making Memories - Purity 606

Purity 606 12/20/2021   Purity 606 Podcast

Good morning,

Today’s photo of pathway towards the beach on the shores of Tampa Bay comes to us from a friend who recently enjoyed a trip to Tampa Florida as an obligation of having a daughter in a soccer travel league where they had the opportunity to play against other talented players from as far away as Michigan, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois.  As much as the playing experience may help their daughter’s soccer skills, my friend reported that the “real treasure” of this  trip that would not fade over time and that can’t be taken away from them are the memories they made.  

It's Monday again and although it is the start of another work week, this week has the potential to be one in which we can make lots of memories as Christmas Eve is Friday, and Saturday is Christmas!  The activities we will do and the people we will spend our time with over the next week will form our memories of Christmas 2021, so its time to “get ‘er done” in more ways than one.  

While there should be an emphasis of preparing our homes and on buying last minute gifts this week, we should also consider preparing our hearts and making arrangements to spend time with the friends and family members who have not faded over time and whose love seems to be impossible to take away. 

Yesterday, I was deeply touched and honored by my church as church leadership called me before the congregation to thank me for my years of faithful service to the church with my service on the worship team as an audio visual technician and as a teacher and leader of our church’s recovery and discipleship ministries. 



I will be attending Sunday services at my bride’s church after we are married on January 1st. so senior Pastor Jaron Halsted and my ministry partner and mentor, Pastor Bob Costello, wanted to publicly thank me for my service and to officially “release me” to this new chapter in my life of faith, giving me the opportunity to share my own thanks to them and Rock Solid Church for giving me a place where I was able to really grow and mature as a Christian and leave behind the darkness of my life before coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  

I’ve been attending Rock Solid since 2011 and have grown exponentially in that house of prayer and while my relationships with the church and the people there are not ending, I will be seeing considerably less of them as I will be worshipping every Sunday with my new bride at Starpoint Church in Clifton Park. I am very grateful for what I have been able to learn and experience at Rock Solid Church and am looking forward to sharing the testimony of that faithful church and the lessons I have learned through the years of being a part of that family of believers.

You never know where the Lord will lead you in life or how long you will be in the company of the people you are in relationship with today, so enjoy this week and this approaching Christmas weekend and remember to let those in your life know that you love them and make some memories with them that can’t be taken away from you and that will define what Christmas 2021 will be.  

 

Today’s Bible verse is drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.  

This morning’s meditation verse is:

Proverbs 2:9 (NLT2)
9  Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.

Today’s verse reminds us that the Lord doesn’t just tell us what is right, He guides us in how to live. 

The previous verses in this chapter of Proverbs have told us that wisdom only comes from the Lord and that we should listen to it.   Today’s verse gives us the result if we do that: we will understand what is right, just, and fair and we will find the right way to go. 

Life’s all about the choices we make and in this world there are various points of view and opinions. It can be difficult to decide what is “right” and to decided which way we should go but the word of God assures us that because God is all knowing and good that He is the one we should consult to know the truth of what is right. 

 

Instead of weighing the opinions of men and world systems, the Bible presents God’s revelation to His people: what He wanted us to know about Him and how we should live our lives.  

So if you want to know what is right, just, and fair, seek the wisdom of the Lord that is contained in the Bible.  When you know what the Lord says about what is right, fair, and just, we can reject the world’s advice to the contrary. 

Just because “people do things this way” or “it works for me”, doesn’t mean it is right.  As the maker of all things,God’s opinion matters the most. He knows why He made us and He knows the end from the beginning so he understands the short term and long term consequences of doing what is right and He has presented us with His wisdom so we would know the “right way to go”.  

So keep walking and talking with God. Read His word to know what’s right and feel confident that when you know Him and His wisdom that you are walking in the way you should go. 


As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.  

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Tozer’s Advent Devotional – From Heaven,  for Day 24 as this current resource series will lead us to Christmas Eve.

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Tozer’s books for your own private study and to support his work.

DAY 24

JESUS—THE IMAGE OF GOD

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

HEBREWS 1:3

I wish I could comprehend everything that the inspired Word is trying to reveal in the statement that Jesus, the eternal Son, is the “brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). This much I do know and understand: Jesus Christ is, Himself, God. As a believer and a disciple, I rejoice that the risen, ascended Christ is now my High Priest and Intercessor at the heavenly throne.

The writer to the Hebrews commands our attention with this descriptive, striking language:

[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son … who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power.

HEBREWS 1:2–3

We trust the Scriptures because we believe they are inspired—God-breathed. Because we believe them, we believe and confess that Jesus was very God of very God.

Nothing anywhere in this vast, complex world is as beautiful and as compelling as the record of the incarnation, the act by which God was made flesh to dwell among us in our own human history. This Jesus, the Christ of God, who made the universe and who sustains all things by His powerful word, was a tiny babe among us. He was comforted to sleep when He whimpered in His mother’s arms. Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness.

Yet, in this context, some things strange and tragic have been happening in recent years within Christianity. For one, some ministers have advised their congregations not to be greatly concerned if theologians dispute the virgin birth of Jesus. The issue, they say, is not important. For another thing, some professing Christians are saying they do not want to be pinned down as to what they really believe about the uniqueness and reality of the deity of Jesus, the Christ.

We live in a society where we cannot always be sure that traditional definitions still hold. But I stand where I always have stood. And the genuine believer, no matter where he may be found in the world, humbly but surely is convinced about the person and position of Jesus Christ. Such a believer lives with calm and confident assurance that Jesus Christ is truly God and that He is everything the inspired writer said He is. He is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). This view of Christ in Hebrews harmonizes with and supports what Paul said of Jesus when he described Him as “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” (Colossians 1:15), in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (2:9).

Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may have differing opinions about the mode of baptism, church polity, or the return of the Lord. But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one substance with the Father—begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense of this truth we must be very careful and very bold—belligerent, if need be.

The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth among us, the more certain we are about who He is. Some critics have protested, “Jesus did not claim to be God, you know. He only said He was the Son of Man.”

It is true that Jesus used the term Son of Man frequently. If I can say it reverently, He seemed proud or at least delighted that He was a man, the Son of Man. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in heaven and that He was equal with the Father.

We know what we believe. Let no one with soft words and charming persuasion argue us into admission that Jesus Christ is any less than very God of very God.

Tozer, A. W. (2016). From heaven: a 28-day advent devotional. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship